pendence Hall and Independence Square are lovingly cared for, and
visitors from all nations are careful to include them both in their tour
of sight-seeing while in this country. Within the Hall they find old
parchments and Eighteenth Century curiosities almost without number, and
antiquarians find sufficient to interest and amuse them for several days
in succession. Every lover of his native land, no matter what that land
may be, raises his hat in reverence when in this ancient and
memory-inspiring building, and he must be thoughtless, indeed, who can
pass through it without paying at least a mental tribute of respect to
the memories of the men who were present at the birth of the greatest
nation the world has ever seen, and who secured for the people of the
United States absolute liberty.

The illustration of the interior of Independence Hall on page 17, was
furnished for use in this work by the National Company of St. Louis,
publishers of "Our Own Country," a large work descriptive of a tour
throughout the most picturesque sections of the United States. The
letter-press in "Our Own Country" was written by the author of this
work, and it is one of the finest tributes to the picturesqueness of
America that has ever been published. Other illustrations in this work
were also kindly supplied by the same publishing house.

CHAPTER II.

THE WITCHES OF SALEM.

A Relic of Religious Bigotry--Parson Lawson's Tirade Against
Witchcraft--Extraordinary Court Records of Old Puritan Days--Alleged
Supernatural Conjuring--A Man and his Wife both put to Death--Crushed
for Refusing to Plead--A Romance of the Old Days of Witch Persecution.

Among the curiosities of New England shown to tourists and visitors, is
the original site of some of the extraordinary trials and executions for
witchcraft in the town of Salem, now known as Danvers, Mass. Looking
back upon the events of two hundred years ago, the prosecution of the
alleged witches appears to us to have been persecution of the most
infamous type. The only justification for the stern Puritans is the fact
that they inherited their ideas of witchcraft and its evils from their
forefathers, and from the country whence most of them came.

One of the earliest precepts of religious bigotry was, "Thou shalt not
allow a witch to live," and from time immemorial witchcraft appears to
have been a capital offense. It is on record that thousands of people
have, from time to time, been